The Colony
by PygmyCritter
Summary: The group receives an off of help while fleeing walkers on the condition they surrender their weapons. Daryl has misgivings about it all. (Sorry for the horrible summary. Future Daryl/Beth.)
1. Chapter 1

**My first crack at a TWD fiction. Any helpful tips to make it better are very welcome! Thanks for reading.**

* * *

Carol felt her legs give way and found herself laying face down in a pile of decaying leaves on the ground deep in the woods. She couldn't do it. She couldn't go on. She just wanted to rest, just for an hour or two.

"Come on." Daryl said as he hoisted her up onto her feet again. "We gotta keep movin'."

"Where?" she said, nearly in tears. "Where are we going?"

"We're bound to find some place safe." Rick sighed as he stopped and looked at the woman, dead leaves hanging from the front of her clothes, dirt smudges all over her face and arms. She was getting weak, he knew that. They all were, but this was not the time to stop and begin whining. They needed cover.

"We thought that church back there was safe, but it wasn't." Carol made her way to a fallen tree and sat down.

"We do need to stop for some rest soon." Lori said quietly to Rick. "We can't keep pushing ourselves like this."

"And if we stop we're sittin' ducks and those damn walkers can come and get us." Daryl argued.

"We can try to rest for a bit." Rick gave in reluctantly.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Hershel asked. "They could be hiding anywhere."

"I would prefer to just keep moving." Glenn added, even as he watched Maggie sit down on the ground where she had been standing just seconds before.

"Just a few minutes." Maggie sighed as she took a small drink of water. She wanted to drain the bottle of its contents, but they didn't have much water left and had to make it last. She handed the bottle to Beth who took a seat next to her.

Lori took a seat next to Carol on the fallen tree, Carl climbing into her lap. Rick took a deep breath and hoped they could afford this break and that they wouldn't find themselves overrun by walkers. He could tell that Daryl didn't agree, but he knew that if people were collapsing from exhaustion they would have no chance if they did in fact encounter a walker.

"Half an hour." he said as he looked at his watch. "Half an hour and then we've gotta get moving again."

* * *

The man and the young woman sat watching the group from their spot in a tree. They'd only seen a few walkers so far in the six hours they'd been on watch. He was eager for this group to just hurry up and move on, but he knew the girl next to him was more inclined to help.

"I know what you're thinking." he whispered. "There are ten of them down there."

"I know, but we know what it's like to be in exactly that position." she replied.

"If you decide to take in the strays, you know what that means." he reminded her.

"They'll have to be approved, and anything they do will come back on me." she nodded as she looked over at the older man. "I know all of this." she smiled.

"They'll have to surrender those weapons." he gestured to the group, their weapons on display, and reasonably so. You never knew when one of those damn things was going to come out of nowhere.

"They look desperate enough." she watched them. "They look like they're on their last leg and there's no other place for them to go."

"Go down and introduce yourself, I'll keep watch while you do that." he moved so she could climb down the large tree.

* * *

They sat and let their bodies rest. It had been a long day. Rick thought the church they'd found would be safe, for a day or two at least, but he was proven wrong when around the crack of dawn the walkers had shown up. They had no chance to get to their cars and the remainder of their supplies. The group had been on the move for about four hours and were exhausted. Rick handed a bottle of water to Lori who took a sip before handing it to Carl who nearly downed the whole bottle.

"We've gotta make it last." Rick said as he took the bottle before his son could empty it.

"I'm thirsty." Carl sighed. "And hungry."

"Well all are, kid." Daryl said as he paced around, his crossbow drawn and at the ready.

"Don't get snappy with him." Lori glared at the man.

"I'm sorry, after a while a kid whining all the time gets on your nerves a bit." he replied. It was clear that he wasn't sorry at all. "Listening to anyone, adult or kid, whine all the damn time gets real old, real fast."

"Did you hear something?" T-Dog asked, holding up his hand.

"What did you hear?" Rick asked as he got to his feet, pulling his gun.

"I thought I heard something moving." he whispered, pointing in the direction he'd heard the noise come from.

The group stood in silence, listening. For a while they heard nothing but the gentle rustling of leaves, which for all they knew could be from the breeze. Then they heard the distinct sound of a twig snapping.

"A walker?" Carol asked, not ready to run again yet.

Daryl shrugged and held his crossbow up, ready to fire if needed.

"Lower your weapons." a woman's voice called out, and soon a young woman emerged from the trees.

The weapons remained raised and everyone tensed. "Who are you?" Rick asked as he stepped forward a step.

"Christie." she replied, holding her own weapon up. "Put your weapons down." she repeated.

"Put yours down." Daryl replied.

"I'll put mine down, but you don't really think that I'm the only one out here, do you?" she said as she set her gun down. "Only an idiot would wander out on their own."

"There are more?" T-Dog asked, looking around, listening as intently as he could for any sounds.

"Like I said, you'd have to be an idiot to wander out on your own." she stood, holding her hands up. "I can help you."

"How so?" Lori asked, keeping Carl behind her.

"Put down your weapons and we can talk." Christie answered. "We don't have time to be screwing around like this."

"We haven't seen any walkers in a few hours." Carol informed her.

"You may not have, but we've seen a few. Not that far behind you." Christie lowered her hands. "We've been keeping an eye on you lot for about half an hour now."

"We've only been stopped for about ten minutes." Glenn pointed out.

"You can get a great view of the area from the trees." Christie crossed her arms over her chest. "Will you please put down your weapons?"

"How can you help?" Hershel asked as he put his weapon away. He didn't feel threatened by the girl. "Lower the weapons, Rick." he insisted.

"We don't know her." Rick hesitated.

"If she meant us any harm, she and her friends could have picked us off while they were hiding." he pointed out.

"The old man has a very good point there." Christie agreed.

"Lower your weapons." Rick instructed.

Reluctantly the group set their weapons down. They stared at the girl expectantly, waiting for her to explain what kind of help she might be able to offer them.

"We have a little settlement not far from here." Christie went on as soon as the last weapon was put away. "If you agree to surrender your weapons, I can take you to the colony and help you out."

"The colony?" Maggie asked.

"There's a small town and a housing development not too far from here." Christie explained. "I can tell you more about once we're safely inside the walls."

"Walls?" Carol asked. "To keep the walkers out?"

"What else would they be for?" Christie asked, her tone indicating that she thought it was an incredibly stupid question.

"How do we know you're going to help?" Daryl asked, not quite as eager to trust her as Hershel seemed to be.

"Well, I suppose you don't know whether or not we'll help, or if we're going to chop you and bake you into pies." she nodded. "But, your other option is to stay out here, exhausted and low on supplies while walkers surround you."

"We can leave if we want?" Rick asked.

"I don't see why you would want to, but, yeah." she nodded. "You can decide to head out and fend for yourself if you so choose."

Rick turned and called the group in for a quick huddle. "I think we should take her up on her offer."

"We don't know her." Daryl argued. "She could be serious about the pie thing."

"Yeah, but she's definitely right about the exhaustion and lack of supplies." T-Dog pointed out. "I say we go with her."

"So do I." Carol agreed emphatically. "I don't want to be out here anymore."

"I can't believe you people." Daryl groaned.

"She and her people could have picked us off one by one, and with good enough cover, we would never have been able to find them." Hershel pointed out again. "If they meant us harm, that would have been a hell of a lot easier for them."

"I just want to get out of these woods." Maggie said as she put her arm around Beth. "We need to get out of here."

"Okay then." Rick said. "Sorry, Daryl, majority rules."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Daryl glanced back over to the woman who stood staring up at one of the trees.

"Have you made your decision?" Christie asked as the group turned back to her.

"As long as we can have our weapons back and can leave when we want." Rick nodded.

"If you decide to leave, then they're yours." she agreed. "But as long as you're inside the colony walls, the weapons will be locked up until you're given clearance to handle them."

"Okay." Hershel took his gun from the waistband of his pants and tossed it on the ground between his group and the young woman. Reluctantly, the others followed suit. Christie stepped forward and stood over the pile of weapons and nodded. She then raised her hands and gave a thumbs-up. Suddenly, they were surrounded by people rappelling from the trees. About fifteen in all.

"Toss me a bag." she said, holding out her hand. One of the men who had just appeared tossed a small duffel to her and she she knelt, gathering the weapons.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Daryl said to Rick as he watched his crossbow disappear into the bag.

"We need to pat you down." Christie said as she handed the bag to the man who had tossed it to her.

"Why?" Daryl asked, not liking the situation one bit. He didn't trust these people.

"To make sure you're not hiding anything." an older man, tall with graying hair and matching goatee said as he stepped forward. "You're Christie's strays, if any of you do anything, it looks bad on her." he started patting Rick down.

"This is Mitchell." Christie said as she started patting Lori down.

"When will we get our stuff back?" Daryl asked as the knife he had tucked into his boot was taken away and tossed into the bag.

"When Reichert says you can have them." Mitchell replied as he moved onto T-Dog.

"After you've been with us for a bit, he'll test you." Christie explained as she finished searching Carol. "Is this your whole group?" she asked.

"We've lost a couple of people recently." Hershel replied.

"When you say 'lost', do you mean they were taken down, or you can't find them?" Christie tossed a small pocket knife Carl was hiding into the bag.

"A couple went down, one we're not sure what happened to her." Rick felt uneasy as he watched one of the men hoist the bag full of their weapons onto his shoulder.

"Give a description of her to Reichert and he can have the militia keep an eye out." Mitchell said. "Come on, let's get moving." he said as he motioned for the group to follow.

"I don't like this." Daryl repeated again and again to his group as they walked along.

"It's better than being out here with no supplies." Carol argued.

"We don't know that for sure." he replied as they made their way along as quietly as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

The group walked along slowly, staying alert to any sound. It was hard for a group that size to move quietly, but they managed it somehow.  
Rick's group was getting tired, their feet dragging as they moved along. Mitchell looked back, seeing some of the foundlings lagging a bit. "It's not much further." he assured them. "Just try to keep up."

"Easier said than done." Beth groused as her toe caught a tree root that had been covered by some leaves.

"Watch where you're goin'." Daryl said as he caught her arm and kept her on her feet.

"How long have you been here?" Lori asked as she walked along beside Rick, right behind Mitchell and Christie.

"We've been here about two months now." Christie replied.

"And you've got a good secure place set up in such a short time?" Rick asked, unconvinced.

"It was here before we were." she answered. "Mitchell and I have been here about two months, Reichert and the others found us and brought us here."

"We were half starved and surrounded." Mitchell explained. "We were with a couple of other people, but they didn't make it." he voice lowered and they could hear the hurt in his voice. Christie reached out and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I bet you they're bumpin' uglies." Daryl commented to Beth who just stared at him for a second before jabbing him in the ribs.

"Shush" she shook her head, but not before a small laugh escaped her.

As the group neared the edge of the woods, a wall could be seen stretching around, the roofs of houses peeking out over the top. The wall seemed to be made up of every material a person could get their hands on. Some bricks, rocks, cinder blocks, chunks of concrete all stacked together to form a wall only about six or seven feet high.

"That wall keeps walkers out?" T-Dog asked as they walked into a clearing just outside the colony walls.

"It's tall enough to, yeah." Mitchell nodded. "We add to it when we can, and we always have people on patrol."

They stopped when they reached a corrugated steel door, two men with rifles posted on top of the wall each side of the door. "Who are they?" the man on the left asked.

"Some foundlings." Christie replied. "They need to talk to Reichert, so they can see if they can stay here for a while at least."

"You're gonna be responsible for them?" the other man asked.

"Yeah." she nodded as she craned her neck to look up at them. "Just open up, all right?"

"You do know what'll happen if they cause trouble..." the guy on left spoke again.

"She knows, she's not an idiot." Mitchell sighed. "Open the damn doors."

"Okay, it's your funeral, Christie." Lefty shrugged and called down to someone below to open the doors.

Daryl looked around as they waited for the doors to be opened and noticed a group repairing the wall near the eastern corner. "What happened there?" he asked.

"We had a storm a while back, lightning hit a tree branch." Christie had to peer around Mitchell to see what Daryl was looking at.

"Is this wall secure?" he asked.

"More secure than being out in the open, surrounded by walkers." Mitchell said as he stepped aside motioning for the group to head in as the doors opened up. "We can't control weather, but we can fix most of what it damages."

They walked through the doors and took in their new surroundings. If one were to overlook the wall surrounding them, it almost looked like a TV or movie set. The yards were kept neat, flower boxes starting to show their new blooms, rose bushes dotted the area and the houses were obviously new and well maintained.

"How many houses are there?" Lori asked as she stared at an old woman sitting on a swing that hung on a covered porch.

"Twenty finished houses." Mitchell replied as he saw the weapons, their own and those of the new group, safely handed over to a man in a steel shed. "And about ten or fifteen that the developers never had the chance to finish."

"Where are the people who lived here?" Carol asked.

"Most of the houses were empty when the original group got here." Christie chimed in. "But they found a few of the residents, but they were removed."

"Removed?" Lori asked. "This Reichert and the others threw them out?"

"They were dead." Christie stated matter-of-factly. "When I said they were removed, I meant that they were taken away and cremated."

"Why cremated?" Hershel asked.

"So they wouldn't cause trouble later."

Mitchell moved off to talk to another man who kept peering over Mitchell's shoulder at the group of newcomers.

"Stein." Christie sighed. "He can be a bit of an ass."

"Is he gonna cause problems?" Rick asked as he watched the interaction between the two men.

"If he has the chance." she nodded. "But he won't influence Reichert, so don't worry."

"So he'll just be an ass to us?" Daryl asked.

"I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

"Okay, can you show them to the house at the end of Whittaker?" Mitchell asked. "Reichert's out hunting, he'll talk to them when he gets back."

"Sure." Christie nodded.

"If all goes well, you'll be split up and you won't all be stuck in one house." Mitchell explained to them. "Christie can explain how it all works."

"Follow me." she waved them forward.

"Do you have your own house?" Carl asked, dreading having to walk more.

"I do." she nodded. "There's kind of a system at work here." she explained. "There's about ten families here, they each have their own place, a couple of the singles have their own, and then others share houses."

"How do they determine who gets their own space?" Maggie asked.

"That tends to be a kind of reward." she turned down a street, looking back to make sure she hadn't lost anyone. "If you keep your nose clean, you do your part, then you get a little place of your own." she looked up at a street sign. "Just a few more blocks."

"My feet are killin' me." Carl complained, holding onto his mother's hand.

"Just a little further." Rick assured him as he, too, read the street signs.

"Here we are." Christie turned left down Whittaker Lane.

It was a rather odd housing development. Generally, the houses all look alike, varying only in color and even then only slightly. The houses here were different styles, some wood sided, others brick, a few made of some sort of stone. There were one or two on this street that were unfinished and,unlike, the others, looked so sad and unloved.

"The houses are well tended." Carol looked at a brick Cape Cod style home, wishing she'd have had that kind of home to bring Sophia up in. From the looks of it, this was the kind of place she would have loved to have raised a family.

"Just one of the ways you can earn your own place." Christie led them to the end of the street and up the walkway to a large colonial type house. "This one is large enough so that you're not all on top of one another while we sort things out." she pulled a set of keys from her pocket, looking at tags that were attached to each. "Aha!" she smiled. "Too many keys." she unlocked the door.

"You have keys to every house?" Maggie asked, not sure how she felt about a stranger having the key to the place where she would be sleeping.

"I have the keys to all the houses on Whittaker." she explained. "I live down the street, so I keep an eye on things over here." She ushered everyone in."It's furnished, and the kitchen is functional, but there's obviously no food in the fridge." she opened one of the large windows in the living room. "We'll get that sorted out, too."

"So, there's running water?" Beth asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought of an actual bath.

"Yes." Christie laughed. "Seems too good to be true when you first get here."

"It changes after you've been here for a while?" Lori asked as she sunk into the overstuffed sofa.

"Well, then you get put onto the chore rota and then you're working all the time." she went around, opening curtains and windows. "And once you've gotten enough trust built up, then you get to go out hunting and keeping watch."

"Sounds good to me." Daryl looked around at his new surroundings and felt uncomfortable.

"Oh, you actually like to work?" Christie asked. "If that's the case, I think you'll come to be one of our favorites."

She looked around and then shrugged. "Well, for now there's not much else for me to do, so I'll leave you to look around." she headed for the front door. "Either Mitchell or I will come get you when Reichert's back." she informed them. "After that, we can get you your first round of supplies."

"Thank you." Rick said as he followed her to the door. "Thanks for all of this."

"Don't thank me yet." she said.


	3. Chapter 3

Beth poked around in the kitchen, her hand gliding over the granite counters as she took in her new surroundings. It was going to be weird staying in a strange house, she felt it might even be weirder than sleeping in the woods. She thought back on what Christie and Mitchell had told them and felt sure that this Reichert man would say they couldn't stay and would have to move on. She had never known the feeling of insecurity until all of this had started. She'd always been safe and happy on her family's farm. The biggest worry she had before was which college she was going to get accepted into. That seemed so silly now. And it seemed so long ago.

"Dreamin' of all the good food you're gonna make us?" Daryl asked as he stepped in from the backyard.

"Why would I be doin' the cooking?" she gave him a quizzical look.

"Well I figure it would be you or one of the other women." he shrugged as he opened cupboard doors.

"We'll see about that." she smiled and continued to wander around.

"Right, we might be back out in the woods tonight."

"To be honest, I think I'd be more comfortable." Beth confessed. "It's weird bein' in someone else's house like this."

"They're dead, they won't be needin' it." he thought it was pretty easy to understand. Dead people don't need fancy houses like this one, so why worry.

Beth stared at him in shock. Sometimes the things he said shook her. "I'm gonna look around upstairs."

She walked along the upstairs hall and passed an open door, seeing Lori lying on the bed fast asleep, she decided to be as quiet as she could. It was a nice house, she just couldn't shake the feeling that not all was what it seemed here. She hadn't said anything to anyone since the others seemed eager for a little peace and quiet, and she neither blamed them or begrudged them a little comfort.

"Dad, I see that woman comin' back!" Carl came running from one of the rooms down the hall, flying past Beth.

"Moment of truth?" Beth muttered as she went to take a seat on the stairs, noticing Lori still asleep apparently undisturbed by Carl's yelling.

"Hey." Rick opened the front door and let Christie and the man he could only assume was Reichert in.

"Hey." Christie nodded to him. "See, already playing the good mannered host." she playfully elbowed Reichert.

He wasn't exactly what Rick had been expecting. Listening to Christie and Mitchell talk about the man, he had expected a large, intimidating man. Instead, the man that stood before him was short, the little bit of hair he had left clinging to his head was gray which matched his full beard. He was rather round, and Rick could imagine him rolling around like a ball if he was knocked over.

"This is Rick." Christie started the introductions, trying to remember the names she'd heard earlier. "Daryl, Carol, Carl, T-Dog, Maggie, Glenn and Hershel." she pointed to each in turn. "I could be wrong, but I think there are couple people missing."

"Lori is upstairs napping." Rick looked around. "I guess Beth must be, too."

"So, there are ten of you?" Reichert asked as he motioned for everyone to sit. "That is a lot of people." he chose a large armchair for himself.

"More people to help out around here." Christie pointed out.

"And more people to feed." he countered with a fatherly smile to the young woman. "And there are no more of you expected to be showing up?"

"We did get separated from one of our group." Hershel replied. "A young woman named Andrea."

"Oh yes, Mitchell mentioned that." he nodded as he looked around at the assembled group. "You do realize it would not be a free ride?"

"We were told we'd have to pull our weight." Rick nodded. "None of us are afraid of hard work."

"Good, good." Reichert smiled. "And you understand our rule on weapons?"

"The bit that we were told." Rick nodded yet again. "We can't have any weapons until we're given approval."

"And even then, you do not get to carry weapons around inside those walls." Reichert informed the group.

"What if a walker gets by your guards?" Daryl asked, very uneasy at the thought of not having any way to protect himself or a member of his group.

"Our walls are strong, and we've got good men and women guarding us."

"Everyone makes a mistake, once in a while, someone's bound to slip up." Daryl argued.

"Are you always this argumentative?" Reichert asked as he looked Daryl up and down.

"Yes." he answered without even considering his answer.

"Good." the little man smiled. "I don't like when people seem to eager to kiss ass."

"Does that mean they can stay?" Christie asked impatiently.

"You do realize, don't you, that if any of them make a mistake, it's your neck on the line?" he asked her, wanting her to be fully aware of the consequences of Rick's group fouling things up.

"Yes, I know." she nodded. "And I explained it all to them."

"I'll give you lot a one week trial period then." Reichert got to his feet. "She'll keep an eye on you, and no doubt Mitchell will be checking in on you quite often."

"Understood." Rick took a deep breath. He hoped he was making the right decision for the group.

"I'm gonna assume you're the group leader." Reichert turned to eying Rick. "Interesting." with that he turned and headed for the door.

Rick looked at Christie for an explanation, but all she could do was shrug. She had no idea what Reichert meant by that.

"You coming, Christie?" he asked as he opened the door.

"Uh, yeah, I am." she got up from her seat and headed into the foyer. "I'll be back tomorrow at 7 a.m." she informed them. "We'll get you started on your chores."

"We'll be waiting."

They watched as the pair left and headed down the street side by side talking and occasionally looking back to the house they'd just left.

"I hope you know what you're getting us into." Daryl sighed, still not happy with the weapons situation.

"At least for tonight we've got a safe place to sleep." Carol pointed out.

"We don't know that yet, do we?" Daryl asked as he headed upstairs to claim a room for himself. He passed Beth on the stares and they exchanged a look that let the other know that neither of them was sure this was a safe place.

"Only time will tell." Beth whispered.

"Guess so." he replied quietly as he headed past her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the reviews. I know Rick's being a bit stupid now, but I'm going somewhere with it. Worry not.**

* * *

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Daryl asked as he paced around the kitchen. All of the men had met up in the kitchen when everyone else had gone to sleep.

"For right now, yeah." Rick nodded, not totally convincing himself.

"You don't think it's a little weird that they took all of our weapons?" Glenna asked.

"I haven't seen anyone inside the walls carrying a weapon." Rick pointed out.

"I don't like it." Daryl continued his pacing.

"If they'd wanted to hurt us..."

"They coulda done out in the woods." Daryl finished his sentence. "What if they're some sort of freaks who like to play with people before they off them?"

"We can at least give it a shot." Rick was trying his hardest to convince Daryl. "With Lori pregnant..."

"So, you're willing to put your wife and baby at risk?"

"I want some time to think of how to keep them safe!" Rick hissed. "To keep us all safe. Staying in one place for a little bit would give me time to do that."

"I don't like it." Glenn stared at the counter in front of him. "Something doesn't seem quite right."

"We've gotten this far." Hershel spoke up. "We can take care of ourselves, and any of us see anything, then we act on it."

"So we just sit around here and wait for them to come after us?" Daryl asked.

"Let's just give it a chance." Hershel put a hand on Daryl's shoulder, to stop him from pacing, and in an attempt to calm him. "A day or two, see how things seem to be going. The whole time we keep our guard up. First sight of trouble, we're outta here."

"How will we get our weapons back if we have to leave?" Glenn asked.

"Leave that to me." Daryl answered. "If we need them, I'll get them."

"For tonight, let's just try to get some rest." Hershel said, trying to stifle a yawn. "I'm old and I need my rest."

Daryl watched the others as they left the kitchen, muttering to each other and to themselves. He understood Rick wanting Lori to be able to take it easy, but he didn't like things there. There was something wrong. Something he couldn't put his finger on.

* * *

"Wakey, wakey!" Christie's voice called out as she let herself into the house. It was quarter past seven and she was eager to get her little foundlings working and looking good for Reichert.

"Keep it down, would ya?" Daryl grumbled from the sofa.

"I said I'd be here around seven." she reminded him. "I expected you'd all be up have had something to eat by now." she looked down at him over the back of the sofa. "You did get the food that was sent over, right?"

"Yeah, we got it." he tossed the throw blanket off and stood up, scratched himself and picked up his pants. "Do you mind?" he asked.

"You're the one who stood up half-naked and you're now gonna claim modesty?" she laughed. "Fine then, I'll go wake the others."

She took the stairs two at a time and opened each door as she walked past. "Come on!" she called out. "I said I'd be here this morning."

"We haven't had a good night's sleep in quite a while." Maggie groaned as she got out of bed, lightly punching Glenn as he burrowed under the blankets. "Can't blame us for oversleepin'."

"I can when I told you I'd be here around seven." she opened the door to the room where Rick, Lori and Carl were sleeping in a large bed. "Wake up!" she repeated as she pulled the blankets off the sleeping family.

"What in the hell." Rick groaned as he sat up, Lori rolling over and her stomach becoming exposed.

"Oh,please tell me that's a beer gut." Christie groaned at the sight of Lori's growing stomach.

"It's none of your business." Lori said as she put a pillow over herself.

"None of my business?" Christie asked. "I'm putting my ass on the line to help all of you and you don't even have the decency to tell me you're knocked up?"

"We didn't think to mention it." Rick tossed Lori his flannel shirt.

"What about last night when Reichert asked if you were all that were going to need help?" she crossed her arms, anger evident as she glared at the pair.

"I don't see how my being pregnant is any of his concern." Lori buttoned the shirt up as she reached for her pants.

"How in the hell can you not see how it would matter?" Christie yelled. "It's not only an extra mouth to feed, it's gonna need special food to feed that mouth, not to mention it's totally helpless person we've all gotta look after, and soon you're going to be damn near useless to all of us!"

"We can take care of our own." Daryl said as he appeared behind her.

"No, when you're in here, we work as a group." she shook her head. "Now I've gotta tell Reichert." she bit her bottom lip and tapped her foot furiously, anger and nervousness getting the better of her. "Get up, get dressed and be down in the yard in half an hour." she said after thinking for a moment. "I'll get you guys working, then I've gotta figure out how to tell him."

"If it's that big of a deal, we'll leave." Carl said, feeling the need to stand up for his mother.

"You're gonna go around on your own towing around a heavily pregnant woman?" she asked staring down the boy.

"I'm not heavily pregnant." Lori argued, her own annoyance coming through.

"No, not yet." Rick put his hands on her shoulders, both to calm her and to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. "What will happen now?" he asked.

"I don't know." she shrugged. "He's not likely to toss a pregnant woman out."

"Give us back our weapons, and we'll go." Daryl said as though it solved everything.

"Let me talk to Reichert first." Christie turned to look at him. "It's best if you're not out there on your own, especially when she starts to slow you all down." she took a deep breath. "Down in the front yard, half an hour." she repeated before turning and leaving them all half-dressed and bewildered.

"I say it might be good if they toss us." Daryl remarked as he, too, turned and walked out.

"She does seem really eager for us to stay." Beth said to Daryl as he started heading back downstairs. "Am I the only one who finds that to be odd?" she asked.

"No,kid, you're not." he shook his head, glancing back at her as he spoke. "He's scared and doesn't want his woman out there while she's carrying that baby."

"You don't wanna stay here either?" she stared at him, thankful she wasn't the only one who was mistrusting.

"No, I don't." he shook his head as he continued on his way. "Don't trust 'em."


	5. Chapter 5

Christie stared at Reichert in disbelief. "You've gotta be kidding me." she said as Reichert moved his oatmeal around the bow.

"No." he shook his head, pushing the breakfast away. "I'm sick of oatmeal."

"So you say every morning." she nodded. "But about her being pregnant..."

"There's nothing we can do about it." he pushed his chair back and got to his feet.

"But they could have told us about it." she pointed out.

"Do you want me to toss them out?" he asked as he pulled a comb through his thinning hair. "I thought you brought them in to help them."

"I did." she admitted. "I just didn't think you'd be so laid back about finding out that they omitted a big detail."

"While I must admit it was stupid and irresponsible for them to add to their little family right now, there is, as I said, nothing we can do about it." he checked himself out in the mirror that hung over a sideboard in the dining room of the small house he'd taken up residence in. "Do you want me to go yell at them?"

"I already did that." She had assumed he'd have more of a reaction to her news. It had some pretty big implications, and yet he was treating it as though it were nothing.

"We haven't had many women give birth while we've been here." he grabbed his coat and motioned for her to follow him, laughing to himself at the pouting, petulant look on her face. "Mixed results to say the least."

"I remember when Clark's wife went into labor.." she nodded, thinking back to the day that Kathy had died, along with the newborn baby.

"And before you showed up, we had quite a little flurry of labors." he opened his front door and waited for the young woman to pass in front of him, admiring the view a bit as she went by. He might be old enough to be her father, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate an attractive younger woman. Look but don't touch. That was his philosophy. "One where the mother and child came through just fine, one where the mother lived, but the baby didn't and the last where the baby survived.."

"And the mother died." Christie figured out for herself. "Is anyone here trained for childbirth?"

"No." he shook his head, waving to some people as he walked along. "Shouldn't you be getting them to work?" he asked. "Your foundlings." he clarified.

"Mitchell is getting them started." she replied. "I wanted to talk to you about what I'd found out. Try to convince you not to throw them out."

"And I disappointed you." he laughed. "Now, now, don't give me that look." he said as she glared at him. She felt that she had overreacted, and he knew that. Over the last few months he came to understand that if she felt embarrassed by something she'd said or done, she got cranky. Not an attractive quality, but a person couldn't pick those kinds of things.

"Not disappointed, necessarily." she crossed her arms over her chest as they headed to Whittaker, staring at the ground as she moved. "Well, maybe that's what it is. I didn't want you to throw them out, I figured you wouldn't throw a helpless baby out like that."

"Thank you for acknowledging that." he nodded.

"I just thought you'd give them hell, make them feel bad for being so stupid."

"You're still upset about everything, aren't you?" he asked as he regarded her.

"You're not?" she asked, feeling uncomfortable at that moment. She would have preferred him looking at her ass instead of reading her mood.

"I didn't lose much." he shrugged. "A law practice, some friends..." he looked away from her. "I know how much you..."

"Look, Mitchell has them all out!" she pointed to the group standing in the middle of Whittaker.

"You don't wanna talk about it, that's fine." he knew exactly what she was doing, and decided to let her, for now at least. She was holding onto some painful memories, and he worried she could cause trouble for the others, for himself, and bring down all that they had built.

"Hey, just getting them ready to work." Mitchell nodded to Reichert and smiled to Christie.

"Thanks." Christie said as she came to stand next to him, trying to shake the discomfort.

"Are you throwin' us out?" Carl asked as he watched the fat little man waddle up to them.

"No." Reichert laughed. "I think you're numbskulls for your timing, but I won't throw an unborn baby out like that."

"So, we're gonna be able to go the week?" Daryl eyed the rotund man. What was it about him? There was something and Daryl promised himself to keep a very close eye on him.

"If you want." Reichert smiled. "Obviously, you know your chances when the time comes for that baby to be born."

"I do." Lori nodded, annoyed that she had to even have this conversation with anyone but Rick. "I don't see why you had to be brought into this." her gaze shifted to Christie.

"Because unlike some people, I was thinking..." Mitchell's hand suddenly clamped over Christie's mouth.

"Deep breaths." he whispered to her. "Be nice now."

Christie stared at him for a minute and then did as he suggested and took a few deep breaths. She had to let go of her anger over the group hiding something big. It would do no good to dwell.

"So, Mitchell explained everything?" she asked, trying to change the topic.

"Why do we have to clean the yards of houses where we don't live?" Carl asked.

"Because some of these houses have no one living in them, and therefor have no one to take care of them." Christie replied.

"So?" Carl shrugged. "If no one lives there, why do they need the yard to be clean?"

"Deep breaths." Mitchell repeated.

"So that everything is neat." Christie's mood was not improving. "We work together to keep things as nice as possible, as home-like as possible."

"I never had to do yard work for my neighbors before." Carl leaned against Lori's hip.

"Well now you do." Rick interjected. "Watch the attitude, Carl." he squeezed his son's shoulder.

"Okay, Carl, be a good, helpful kid and go start mowing the yard at number 48, okay?" Mitchell stepped in. He knew Christie well enough to know when she was about to lose it. He didn't know why she was in such a mood, but he thought it best to step in for her.

"Won't mowers attract walkers?" Maggie asked, feeling a bit embarrassed by the boy's behavior.

"We don't use gas mowers." Reichert suddenly chimed in. "Old fashioned push mowers."

"Saves the gas for the cars, and no noise." Mitchell smiled.

"Can we get started?" Christie asked, feeling the need to do something, anything that might improve her mood. Even she wasn't totally sure why she was feeling so crabby.

"Yeah, let's do that." Mitchell assigned jobs to everyone and then took his leave reluctantly to see to his own street. He didn't like the idea of leaving her when she was in one of her moods, he knew very well some of the things she might say, but Reichert motioned to him that it was time to go.

"This place sucks." Carl grumbled as he headed off to mow.

"Carl, watch it!" Rick called after him. "We've gotta keep an eye on him." he turned to Lori as he handed her a rake.

"Of course we do." she nodded. "Especially with her around." she nodded towards Christie who headed off to her own house, rake and head clippers in tow.

Rick sighed as he watched the two women walk off. If Carl kept up with his attitude and Lori took a dislike to Christie, they may very well have to head out on their own again and soon.


	6. Chapter 6

_A loud bang woke her up, and as she sat up and looked around, she could see nothing but darkness all around her. Still half asleep, she strained to hear anything besides the crickets and frogs outside in the yard. She got out of her bed and slowly made her way to her door, opening it and hoping it wouldn't squeak as it normally did. She poked her head outside the door and looked around. She could see and hear nothing, but an odd smell caught her off guard. Covering her mouth with the sleeve of the shirt she wore, she walked down the hall to her parent's room. She half expected to see both of her parents sleeping in the king-sized bed that they'd shared for more than twenty years, and she had to remind herself that her father would not be there. Never again. _

_She saw that the door to her mother's room was open a crack and found it odd. Her mother always slept with her door shut tight. "Mom?" she whispered as she pushed the door open. The smell she'd noticed at her own bedroom door suddenly became stronger. Her heart dropped when she flicked on the light and saw her mother lying in her bed, blood splattered everywhere. "Mom!" she ran to her mother's side, really knowing that it was too late. There was too much blood and she knew she was gone.  
_

_Sobbing, she got off the bed and realized she was covered in her mother's blood, but all she could think of was finding her brother and sister-in-law who were sleeping in the downstairs bedroom. She stumbled to the stairs and forced her legs to move down them, seeking out her family. As she reached the bottom landing, another loud bang rang out, causing her to fall back in surprise. "No." she felt as though she was going to be sick as she struggled to get back to her feet. Clutching the old, solid wood handrail, she made her way forward, desperate to get to Kevin and Julie's room._

_"Kevin?" she called out, not even thinking that she could be attracting the attention of whoever was doing all of this. "Julie?"_

_"Hi, Christie." Julie stepped out of the room she shared with her husband, her clothes covered in blood. "I need you to be good for me." she said as she stepped forward, holding the gun that Kevin and Christie's father kept in a lock box in the basement._

_"Julie?" Christie stopped dead in her tracks. "What's going on?"_

_"You've seen what's happening out there, Christie." Julie wept. "You know what we'll all become!" she screamed. "I don't want to end up like that, I don't want any of us to." _

_"We won't..." Christie was having trouble breathing as she sobbed harder and harder. "Please...what have you done?"_

_"What needs to be done." Julie smiled, tears and snot running down her own face, mixing with her husband's and mother-in-law's blood. "I won't let it happen to us." she lifted the gun and aimed it at Christie. _

_Christie forced herself to move, she had to get away. She wouldn't let herself be killed. She was going to survive this, she'd promised her father. They all had._

_"Christie, come back here!" Julie screamed at the top of her lungs. "I have to do this."_

_Christie continued to move even as Julie fired at her. She was able to avoid the first and second bullet, but the third grazed her shoulder causing her to scream in pain. She made her way to the front door and ran out into the night._

_"Christie!" she could hear Julie call out one last time before another shot rang out and silence fell upon the neighborhood again._

_Christie collapsed in her front yard and stared back at the old Victorian house. Between the pain and the sobbing, she couldn't hold back anymore and began to vomit all over the grass in front of her. Her stomach ached and she felt as though she had no energy left. As she tried to collect herself, she heard a shuffling noise and a hiss and turned to see one of them coming towards her. Groaning, she stumbled to her feet again and forced herself to go back inside. She tripped on the second step and felt a hand grip her ankle, pulling her down the steps towards the sidewalk. _

_"No!" she cried as she grabbed the heavy ceramic gnome that sat on the edge of the porch. Swinging with every ounce of strength she could muster, she lashed out and caught the thing in the side of the head. Not enough to kill it, she knew that much, but enough to break its grip on her leg. Even more inspired than before, she got to her feet and ran into the house, slipping in a pool of blood as she shut the door behind her. Struggling to reach up she locked the door. She looked down the hall that led to the kitchen and back bedrooms and saw Julie lying on the floor, her face unrecognizable after the self-inflicted wound._

_She huddled herself up against the door and wept, rocking back and forth. Everything had gone to hell, and now she was completely alone._

Christie sat up, screaming as she did, her body drenched in sweat. She took a few deep breaths, feeling as though she had been drowning. That dream. Again. She didn't know how long she was going to have to put up with it. She wanted nothing more than to forget that night, but she knew that she never would. It would always be with her. She sat up against her headboard and clutched a pillow to her chest and wept into it. No matter what, she would always be alone.


End file.
